Sales training "worst practices": What are some of the biggest mistakes made in sales training?

Based on ESR's ongoing work and research on this topic, here's my list:

1. Not understanding how your customers buy--their tendencies, preferences, processes, alternatives, capabilities, etc. Ten years ago a mediocre salesperson could have some control over a customer buying process. Now even the strongest ones often can't due to significant advances on approaches, strategies, tactics, talent, and methodologies on the buy-side.

2. Not having the right people in sales and sales management jobs. We estimate that as many as 33% of salespeople and well over 50% of first line sales managers are not suited for the jobs they hold.

3. Not having a sales process to train to. Tactical event-based training rarely has any long-term impact, yet that's what most companies buy. Companies that enjoy competitive advantage in their markets based on how effectively they sell have a proven, pragmatic sales process for each distinct product/market/customer group. Most of the sales training consists of learning and reinforcement on employing those processes.

4. Not measuring the impact of learning/training interventions, and I don't mean smile sheets filled out at the end of the day. Market-leading sales organizations measure a lot. No need to get into details here, but it's not just MTD, QTD, YTD sales numbers.

5. Not investing in effective ongoing reinforcement including coaching and technology-enabled learning and selling tools.

So, in summary, what's the worst practice? Not looking at, investing in, and executing sales training as the strategic medium for sales effectiveness that should be.

Short and sweet Craig. The number one mistake companies make is having no training process in place. Start somewhere and improve form there.

Hi Craig:

I like both comments above but my #1 is the last one on Kevin's list - failure to make continuous improvement a part of the culture. Most companies have difficulty doing this because there isn't a common, documented process for selling that is constantly reinforced and improved upon.

Many of the companies I have worked for and with have had the same sales training flaw.

They focus too much on one area;
For example one company I worked for spent 2 weeks on product training, calling it sales training and then sent their sales people out to sell, without any idea of what a sales process is.

Another company did the opposite and spent 1 month on sales technique but barely touched the products. The sales people where given a 50 page book with information on the different products, that was the product training.

Something many companies miss, I think, is working on personal development, helping sales people with goal setting, planning, time management and so on. Adding this to the sales training will greatly increase the output of the sales people.

Of course anything is better than nothing as others have stated before me.

On a recent flight, I sat next to a sales VP who said of his reps, "Train them? If I had to train them I wouldn't have hired them."

Until he said that, I thought he seemed pretty smart. Glad he's not a surgeon, air traffic controller, or sports coach.

I couldn't agree more with Steve's and Kevin's comments re: culture. Building training into the 'culture' of an organization is the key to everything else. If not, training is seen as an expense over an investment in developing skills in people.

At the risk of a tactless commercial message here - I have developed Revenue Mapping that is in fact a common, documented process for managing and measuring sales activity. RevMap uses two maps for managing the process; a financial map for pipeline management and a sales map for each individual sales opportunity.

The biggest and most common mistake I see is all the effort put in to WHAT to sell (features, functions, capabilities) and zero effort put in to HOW to sell it (positioning, pain points, differentiation).

Emphasizing technique, process and behavior over empathy, insight and motivation.

"Fake it 'til you make it' is good for teaching golf and French. When applied to sales training, it not only fosters a mistaken belief that you can mechanize human relationships, it sends out people into the field equipped with the equivalent of pickup lines.

A good sales training program will put heavy emphasis on the value of attitudes and beliefs, and will include liberal use of role-plays (everyone hates them, they're still the best vehicle) so that people can practice and get things to feel natural.

Amen to Kevin's #3... Product training is necessary, but features don't sell, benefits do. And many companies have training focused around the bells and whistles. We help our people develop active listening skills through formal training and ongoing coaching. Only after they listen and discover challenges their prospects want to solve can they demonstrate how a product or service will help them acheive their goals.

Most sales training fails in application. They also fail to seek measurable results.

Below is a link to an article I also posted recently on it.

http://www.ryanwalex.com/2011/01/the-big-problem-with-sales-training/

Ryan Alex

The Sales Training program/content must be agreed upon by the Sr. sales leadership team prior to the roll out to the sales staff. This way the sales leaders can reinforce (coach) as often as possible in an effort to manage adoption/behavior. Net, net...The leverage is in the leadership when it comes to the success/failure of a traning program.

There's not much I can add to what's been said here - although I'll weigh-in with some of my favorites from the lists above:

#1. - Not fostering an ongoing culture of training, education, and improvement. Managers, *encourage your reps to read*. Most of what they really need to know is *not* in the Wall Street Journal or the Harvard Business Review.

#2 - Making your best reps take newbies along is not 'outsourcing your sales training' - it's *wasting everyone's time*. The experienced rep can't do his or her job; the newbie feels like a third-wheel (which is the truth), and the turnover-rate is going to be higher as a result. Pony up the cash for a real training program.

#3 - Product training is not sales training. Don't ever confuse the two.

#4 - Determine what type of training you need. Does your product or service require a simple, or complex process? If the sale of your product or service requires more than one or two calls to close a piece of business and the signatures of more than one person, then it's a complex-sale - and teaching your salespeople a linear sales-cycle is a waste of time.

#5 - Know your company - and change your policies, culture, and business philosophies if you have to. By example, if your prior hiring-methods were focused on buying a Rolodex or 'hiring paper rather than people' - then chances are you don't have a sales team; you've got a group of mercenaries who'll jump ship the next time they're offered a marginally-better deal by a competitor. On the other hand, if you've hired people, then investing in them is a logical next step. (Note: Forward-thinking companies build teams. The rest hire mercenaries and try to keep a lid on the revolving door in the turnstile by way of repressive measures - non-compete agreements and the like. Do you want to build for the future? Hire team players, and train them.)

All too often, sales organizations train their sales people on the management of the process, the technology, and the use of the CRM application. When crunch time hits however, the only focus is on "what's closing?" The rest of the training goes out the window. Even with the focus on closing, very little time and effort is devoted to training sales personnel on how to close. Closing is as much art as it is science and it does not start by asking for the order (which many sales people don't know how to do), it actually starts at the time of the initial introduction.

Contine to reinforce training on the entire process and see the results increase.

Great points so far!

Here is another mistake: Limiting training to what is taught in the classroom (or conference room or wherever the sessions take place).

Training doesn't "stick" if not reinforced by applying in the field, monitoring effectiveness, and revisiting as necessary until it becomes second nature.

Here's my dirty dozen. As a trained instructional designer, there are many more mistakes, but these in my opinion are the main ones:

Mistake #1 - No proven sales process where both marketing and selling work together
Mistake #2 - Failure to understand the brain only absorbs what the butt will endure
Mistake #3 - Focus only at acquisition of knowledge that being learning without any application of knowledge that being performance
Mistake #4 - Focus only on specific sales skills without understanding people skills
Mistake #5 - Focus on closing the sale instead of earning the sale
Mistake #6 - Failure to understand the buying decision process because the focus is on the salesperson's sales process
Mistake #7 - Failure to include a proven goal setting/goal achievement process
Mistake #8 - No opportunities for feedback
Mistake #9 - Lack of alignment with other organizational strategies, structures, processes, rewards and people
Mistake #10 - Confuse training with development
Mistake #11 - Overall cultural attitude that people are a liability instead of the most significant capital within the organization
Mistake #12 - No clearly defined results before training or development begins

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, author of Be the Red jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits